Phanniemay 2019
by EchoGhost1
Summary: Can you believe it? It's that time of year again! As is traditional, I will once again, be participating in Becca's Phanniemay challenge! Latest Prompt - Memories
1. Day 01 - Doorways

When I was a kid I had this really vivid nightmare that involved doors. Every time I left a room I would end up in a completely different place then what I had been expecting.

In most dreams, you don't notice that sort of thing until you wake up, but not that time.

In the dream, I was waking up late for my first day of school. In a rush, I got dressed and ran out of my bedroom door without a second thought.

That's when things went wrong.

Instead of being in the hallway, I was standing in the living room at my grandmother's house. I panicked thinking I was really going to be late now.

So I ran out of her front door and ended up at the grocery store.

This went on for a while, every door leading me to all the different places I'd been but in no logical order.

Eventually, I ended up in my parent's basement lab. This was long before the portal was finished, at that point, it was just a hollow skeleton of metal bars and exposed wires.

I don't remember what happens next, I don't know if I walked in or tried the stairs, or maybe that's when I woke up.

Either way, years passed and I nearly forgot all about. Until I had it again after using the infi-map for the first time.

It was more or less the same dream, it just added a few locations. Some were nice, like Sam's basement or Tucker's attic. I wasn't that excited to find myself in the guest room I'd used at Vlad's Wisconsin castle.

It did, however, end the same, with me in the lab, standing in front of the Fenton Portal. This time I know I went in.


	2. Day 02 - Secrets

The last ghost fight was brutal. The ghost was a hybrid electric and plant type and its main weapon was simple enough but could a lot of damage if it hit you right.

Danny had done a pretty good job avoiding it for most of the battle, firing his usual witty banter just as easily as his ectoblasts.

Then he got hurt.

The ghost used a vine-like whip that was covered in thorns and when it made contact with anything it let off a dangerous amount of electricity.

He probably would have only had a few minor scrapes and bruises if those were two separate attacks. Unfortunately, once the thorns pierced his skin, his body spasmed from the surge and only made the wounds bigger.

Once I noticed what was happening I grabbed the nearest brick from part of the wall they had recently demolished and chucked it at the ghost. The ghost was trapped inside the thermos quickly after that.

Tucker and I had to rush Danny to safety. Which that day, happened to be my house.

Normally, coming home with unexpected guests would have gotten me into a bit of trouble, _especially_ if they were getting blood all over the entryway.

Luckily my parents were out at some dumb seminar for the weekend and Granny never stood up this late.

Tucker and I made a pretty good team when it came to helping Danny and he was all fixed up in no time.

Tucker volunteered to take him home for an impromptu sleepover, which left me to clean up.

I grabbed the biggest towel I could find and went to town wiping up the Christmas colored carnage.

I got it up as a best as I could, but I realized it had started to stain. And there was no way my parents wouldn't notice.

A quick Google search later and I was armed with a mop and a tub full of bleach. The odd thing was, despite never having used the stuff, it smelled familiar.

Then I remembered, that about once a month my mother would go out to the salon and have this diluted scent linger on her. Whenever I had asked about it in the past, she'd just tell me it was her nail polish.

When I was done with the mop and all I had to do was wait while the towel sat in its bleach bath, I did some investigating.

Turns out my mother isn't as perfect as she says she is. She's only blonde because she's been bleaching her hair for years.

I smirked and could wait to use this secret against her.


	3. Day 03 - Grave

Sitting alone in a graveyard with grass stains on his jeans was not at all how he expected his school day to end.

Danny had been minding his own business as he made his way from his last class and onto homeroom, when out of nowhere came Dash's horrible indignant screech.

It wasn't much of a head start, but Danny knew better than to squander it. He threw his books to the floor and took off down the hall.

Whatever it was that Dash was upset about seemed to be pretty bad as he actually continued to pursue him even out of the school.

He knew he couldn't go invisible with so many other people around, but he still needed to find a way to disappear.

He was starting to run out of school property so he did the only thing he could do, he hopped the fence and just kept running.

When he finally realized Dash wasn't chasing him anymore, he slowed down to a brisk walk. Not sure if it was safe to go back to school and with it too early to go home he decided to enjoy his freedom.

That is until he tripped and ended up with a mouth full of grass.

He spat out the dirty blades and rolled over to see what had caused the first glance, it looked like an old rock, but then he realized where he was, the cemetery.

"Oh crud, sorry." He scrambled up and went to find the name hoping that this wouldn't lead to some long drawn out ghost fight because this might be some kind of high criminal offense to kick a headstone.

It was a pretty old marker, clearly worn from years of being out in the elements. It was mostly white and had raised text, that was also pretty worn out.

With a combination of squinting and feeling the letters with his fingers he read:

_In the absence of burial,  
we leave this in honor of the brave soul who risked his life to save another.  
Rest peaceful Daniel Peters._

It was followed by his birth and death dates, which if he was doing the math right this guy wasn't much older than he was.

"Sorry Daniel, didn't mean to trip over your plaque here. I guess I wasn't really- wait a minute Daniel Peters?"

Danny racked his brain trying to remember why that name sounded so familiar. He died tragically young saving someone else and they couldn't bury him….

Oh, this is _that _Daniel Peters.

The one who died saving another student as the original school house burned to the ground. The one that everyone assumed was the true identity of Danny Phantom.

"Hey there buddy, my name is also Danny and everyone thinks I'm you. Is that okay?"


	4. Day 04 - Wishes

Danny slid out of his ghost form as he landed on the ground beside his friends, "You know, one of these days I really wish I could just get a day off."

There was a pause, as if even the alley was holding its breath.

Then it came, "So you wish it, so shall it be."

"No wait!"

Before anyone could stop it, everything went black.

* * *

Danny awoke the next morning to something slapping him in the face. He sprung into full alertness, battle ready, looking around for his attacker.

A second passed and he realized he was alone in his bedroom. No ghost sense, no ghost.

With a sigh he unclenched his fists and relaxed, letting his pent up spectral energy dissipate he looked down and found the culprit in the bed sheets, a plastic glow in the dark star.

"Oh, it was just Polaris." He rolled his eyes and stuck the star back in its place on the tail of the Little Dipper.

The rest of his day went in a similar fashion. Not a single ghost attacked him. It was just his clumsiness and hypervigilance that seemed to be the only thing causing him problems. Even Dash was pretty well behaved that day.

Of course, it only took until lunch for his friends to ask him what was wrong.

"Nothing! That's the problem."

"Care to elaborate?" Sam asked before taking a drink from her reusable water bottle.

"It's just that usually something happens by now. I can't remember the last time I made it all the way to lunch without a single person, dead or alive, trying to kill me. I mean just last Tuesday there was a ghost every hour on the hour."

Tucker quickly swallowed a bite that might have been just a bit too big before he added, "That's because it was the same ghost, dude."

"Yeah, I know. But that's not the point, the point is why hasn't anyone tried to hit me yet?"

"If you really want I could punch you." Sam offered with a wicked little smirk.

"I don't want anyone to punch me!"

"Then what do you want?"

"I just want today to make sense! Ever since I woke up this morning everything's just felt-" Danny stopped, suddenly realizing what the problem was. "Oh." He grumbled to himself, "of course she'd do that."

"Is it just me or did Danny just stop making sense?"

"_Just_ stopped?" Tucker started, "I've been lost this entire conversation."

"Okay remember last night?" Danny started really wanting today to be over.

"Yeah, we had to run all over town catching all those loose animal ghosts."

"Right, and after that, when we were in the alley I said," Danny paused to think not wanting to make the same mistake twice, "that I _wanted_ a day off and then our favorite genie did her thing."

"Okay, so what's the problem? Seems like she actually did you a favor."

"No, she didn't! She twisted my words!"

"She did? How so?"

"I asked for a day off, she gave me an _off_ day!"

There was a pause then Tucker snickered, "But I thought you liked puns?"


	5. Day 05 - Second Gen

When I was finally able to call on my ghost form I couldn't have been happier. It sucked that I had to get nearly mulled to death for it to work, but hey, at least Zelda was safe.

After waiting what felt like _forever_ for my wounds to heal, _and_ for dad to be satisfied with my ghost stability, he took me out to fly.

It was just as amazing as I thought it would be! The wind in my hair, and no one having to hold me up, it was perfect.

The only problem was I kept catching dad holding his hands up like he was ready to catch me at any second.

"Oh my god, Dad, stop!"

"What? I'm not doing anything."

"You're hovering! And I don't just mean literally."

He opened his mouth but then quickly snapped it shut again. "Was it that obvious?"

"Yeah, you're like five times bigger than me and glowing. That's pretty hard to miss."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you nervous. I was trying to do the opposite."

"I know," I relented, "Why don't we just enjoy this view?" I looked up at all the stars above us and tried to find one I knew. "That bright one there is Venus right?"

"Yeah!" He confirmed his bright green eyes glowing even brighter in excitement. "And that blurry patch over there next to Pegasus is the galaxy we named you after."

"Dad, you point it out every night."

"I do not, that's impossible."

"How is that impossible?"

"Sometimes it's raining, or snowing, or I'm out fighting ghosts, or you're staying the night at a friend's house. Or-"

"Alright, alright you made your point. You win this round." I floated over and bumped his arm with my own, "So, where's that black hole everyone's been talking about?"

* * *

All credit for Annie Fenton goes to Becca, or thickerthanectoplasm, on Tumblr.


	6. Day 06 - Compromise

Vlad Masters relaxed in his favorite armchair idly petting his cat as he watched his favorite show, illegally spying on the Fenton's.

He'd never admit it to the boy, but the cat was a nice addition to his home.

He had never planned on getting a pet and certainly not after Daniel had made it a joke, but when he saw this sweet little girl how could he say no?

It had taken some getting used to, of course, another mouth to feed and a living creature to care for, not at all like the ghosts he would, "work" with.

Although being nocturnal and generally pretty independent melded well with his lifestyle. All he had to do to keep her satisfied was to provide food, water, and shelter from the rain. In return, she offered companionship and an ear to listen, even if she didn't actually understand.

All in all, it was an excellent compromise.


	7. Day 07 - Solar

"Hey, Danny do you know anything about La Casa del Sol?" Paulina asked as they walked out of English class.

Not being very fluent in Spanish, and running on about 4 and half hours of sleep he smartly said, "The what now?"

She rolled her eyes, "La Casa del Sol, it's this abandoned bed and breakfast on the north side of town, you know near that creepy hospital."

"Oh, that place. What about it?"

"Do you know if it's really haunted? I heard from my Abuela that it was, but I figured I'd ask you to be sure."

"Why would I know?"

"Your parents are ghost hunters and your dad never shuts up about it."

"Oh right," Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously thinking for a second she knew his secret. "Yeah, they camped there for a weekend or something before they got the portal to work. They didn't catch anything then." He paused thinking that didn't necessarily mean it wasn't.

"Yeah but that was before Phantom right?"

He nodded starting to get curious as to why she was wanting to know any of this.

"Okay, gracias." Then she ran off to catch up with Star.

Entirely clueless as to what that was about he shrugged it off.


	8. Day 13 - Confined

Sam had gotten used to getting calls from Danny in the middle of the night, whether it be to regroup after a ghost attack or he forgot about time and just wanted to talk.

What she wasn't used to was hearing Paulina's voice on the other end.

"Where's Danny?"

"That's the problem! He's still inside and I can't get back in and I don't know what to do and you were his first emergency contact and I'm freaking out!" Paulina rattled off in a panic.

"Are you still at the Bed and Breakfast?"

"Yeah, I- Hey! I told him not to tell anyone!"

"That's not important now. I need to know if you've called anyone else."

"No just you. Should I?"

"No! Look Tucker and I can be there in about five minutes. Just stay there and let me know if anything changes okay." Sam hung up once Paulina agreed.

She quickly got dressed as she sent a text to Tucker. "Danny's in trouble. Meet me at the B & B."

It didn't take long to get there and Sam was pleasantly surprised to see that Paulina was smart enough to dress in all black.

Tucker was only a minute or so later and Paulina started to tell them what had happened. Easily breezing through how they met and Danny's skepticism that the place was even haunted.

"And that's when his ghost sense went off and I tried to get him to explain himself but that's when she showed up."

"How do you know about ghost sense?" Sam asked cautiously covering Tucker's mouth before he had a chance to add anything stupid.

She rolled her eyes, "During the ghost bug thing. While you were stuck floating on the ceiling, I had to deal with that going off every five seconds."

Tucker snickered and Sam did her best to resist elbowing him in the gut.

"Okay, so Danny's inside with a ghost lady and she kicked you out. Did she seem angry or hostile towards you guys?"

"That's just it, she was super nice and even concerned when she noticed Danny was hurt."

"Danny's hurt?! You failed to mention that on the phone!"

"Well it's just a scratch, he was able to patch it up."

Sam rolled her eyes, "Whatever, continue."

"Anyway, she started going on about how he should get some rest and started to tuck him into bed. The weirdest part was that he really didn't fight back much, at least not after she started singing."

"Singing?"

"Yeah, the tune sounded familiar but the words were all wrong or in some other language?"

"Did hearing her sing make all the hairs on your body stand on end and fill you with the strongest sense of wrongness?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

Sam and Tucker shared a knowing look and a nod.

"Well when I realized she had him trapped I guess, I tried to shake him out of it and that's when she got mad and this crazy wind blew me and Danny's stuff way out here."

"All the way from the second floor? Impressive."Tucker nodded as he looked up towards the second story.

"Just ignore him," Sam dismissed as she looked back to Paulina. "Have you tried all the doors?"

She nodded looking back to the building in worry, "This isn't at all what I wanted. Where is Danny Phantom?"

Sam sighed, "Look he can't be everywhere at once."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"We're going to go inside," Sam looked around until she found what she was looking for, "and we're going to rescue Danny." She got a good firm grip on the chunk of asphalt before chucking into the nearest window.


	9. Day 15 - Alternate Ending

Danny followed Tucker and Sam into the greenhouse and instantly regretted it. He had been feeling a bit warm when he got up this morning, but nothing else was wrong. Now that he was standing inside this artificial humidity, it only felt worse.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a little too warm in here for me."

"Really? You sure you aren't sick?"

"I don't think so."

Sam came closer and put the back of her hand to his forehead, "You do feel a little feverish, you sure you don't want to just go home?"

Danny smiled and took her hand away, "The school's got air conditioning and I can always just sneak a cold shower in the locker room if I really need it. Trust me I'm fine."

Sam gave him a long hard look but relented, "Fine, just don't push yourself too hard today okay?"

Danny agreed and waited just outside for her to feed her plant babies before they all headed off to school.

On the way, they passed a new construction site currently in the process of demolishing a nice green space.

"Urban blight, so thrilled to live in the 21st century." Sam lamented arms to the sky.

"Me too!" Tucker replied completely missing her sarcasm. "That new arcade in the new strip mall next to the new hot dog place looks awesome! And new!"

"I know." Danny chuckled. "Besides Sam, there's nothing wrong with a little progress."

"Yeah, Vlad's new beautification campaign is very progressive," Tucker added pointing up to the nearby billboard.

"No, just progressively worse. Seriously, messing too much with nature can be a dangerous thing."

As if on cue, the ground rumbled and the earth cracked as a ghostly plant monster grew in height and rage.

Danny sprung into action but faltered, momentarily dizzy from the heat. He shook it off and leaped into action quickly throwing ecto blasts and witty one-liners.

Undergrowth just kept regenerating. No matter how quickly or even where he hurled his blasts, it all just grew back. He even tried the classic zombie approach by going for the head.

Nothing worked.

Danny charged up a huge ball of energy ready to end this quickly before any more damage could be done.

"You can't regenerate if you're a pile if ashes!" He was ready to throw but another wave of dizziness washed over him. His suit felt too tight, he was sweating, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. Why was it so hot?

Undergrowth took advantage of his weakened state, capturing both him and his friends. In the most horrific way possible, Undergrowth released sleep spore by willing his head to split apart to reveal his brain.

Danny awoke with a start, body bound to a huge tree-like plant. The vines holding him down were like sap covered steel cables.

Tucker was beside him just as helpless. With growing dread, they learned of Undergrowth's plan and current progress of world domination. Even worse than the whole town being attached to the Mind Vine, was Sam being used as his personal puppet. She wasn't just a mindless slave, but a twisted version of herself.

Once Tucker and Danny's own parents were taken by the Mind Vine, Danny was all the more desperate to escape and fight for his town, friends, and his family.

A rush of heat washed over him, even stronger than before, and the vines holding him back withered and blackened.

Now free, he tried again to fight back, but it was no use. Undergrowth was just too powerful. Danny decided to try a new tactic.

Escape.

He had never faced a threat so strong. He was starting to think that facing off against Pariah Dark was easier than this, or at least a little less terrifying. Sure he had been the king of all ghosts and Danny had needed a mech to even match his power, but he also had every ghost in the zone on his side.

That's it! The Ghost Zone, maybe he could find some relief from this heat _and_ a way to win there! Mind hazy from the fever he headed to the one friendly place he knew, The Far Frozen.


	10. Day 22 - Memories

"So I meant to ask you earlier, but what did Paulina want to talk to you about?" Tucker asked before dumping the rest of his bag of Fritos in his mouth.

"Oh that, yeah she was just asking if some place in town was haunted. Not sure why though."

"You know where this place is?" Sam asked with a sigh.

"Yeah, why?"

"Then I guess I know what we'll be doing tonight."

"I'm not following."

"Are you really that clueless?"

"Yeah dude, it's pretty obvious."

Danny looked between his two friends completely lost.

"She's going to put herself in a damsel in distress situation so her favorite ghost boy can come to rescue her."

"You really think she'd go through all that trouble just to see Phantom?"

"I'm actually surprised it took her this long to think of it," Tucker added.

"Should I ask her about it?"

"You want to just walk up to the most popular girl in school and ask if she's going to be breaking curfew to commit B&E all to see her ghost crush?"

"Yes?" Danny shrugged hoping he could think of a more polite way to ask her.

"You know what, go ahead. I could use a good laugh today."

"Sam!"

"No, no, it'll be fine. Oh look she's by herself, better be quick." Sam urged him off and Danny couldn't tell if it was to be helpful or if she actually expected him to fail.

Danny made his way over to the trash cans and caught Paulina just as she was turning around to head back to her table. "Hey, I was just wondering if you were asking about that potentially haunted place because you wanted to go there. Because if you were maybe you could use some back up because I'd hate to hear that you got hurt while you were exploring or worse couldn't even get in. I could help with that, the getting in thing and making sure you didn't get hurt and I could even borrow some of my parent's ghost hunting gear in case we run into anything." Danny took a breath after that long-winded ramble then added, "That is, only if you want me too, of course."

She was quiet for a moment until she finally agreed. "Alright, meet me there at exactly midnight. Do not make me wait. And don't tell anyone. Got it?" she poked his chest for emphasis.

He nodded quickly until she turned on her heel and left him standing there alone.

Danny waited just behind an overgrown bush by the corner of the old bed and breakfast for Paulina to arrive. It was still about ten minutes until midnight but he'd rather be early than late. So far his ghost sense hadn't gone off which was good. Best case scenario he could convince her nothing was here and he could go home and get some sleep for once.

Five minutes passed and he finally saw Paulina make her way up the street on her moped. She had traded in her normal pink halter top and capris for an oversized black hoodie, a Dumpty Humpty Tee, and black jeggings. Danny looked down and realized he was still just wearing his normal school clothes, he hadn't thought about changing since he could just go invisible if he needed too.

Danny doubled checked that his phone was on silent then stepped out to meet her. "Hey, so I did a quick check and I don't think this place is haunted, did you still want to go in?"

"You went in without me?" Paulina pouted, hand on her hip.

"No, I just looked around from outside."

She tapped her finger on the handlebar of her moped as she thought before saying, "Well I didn't get dressed up for nothing. Let's just take a look around inside anyway."

They hid her vehicle in the bush Danny had previously occupied and made their way to the backside of the building as to not be seen from the road.

Paulina tried to open the door first but found it was locked. "Seriously?"

"Let me try." Danny offered. Using his body to shield what he was doing he phased his hand through the old wooden door and unlocked it.

"How did?" She starter but shook her head apparently not wanting to actually know the answer.

They entered and slowly made their way around the abandoned building. At first, he thought she was going so slow because she was scared, but then he realized that she couldn't see in the dark.

They walked passed an old cracked mirror and Danny was able to catch a glimpse of his eyes glowing ever so slightly. "Oh crud."

"What? Did you see a ghost?" Paulina excitedly asked as she turned to face him.

He immediately looked away and luckily there was an adjacent room to look into, "Not exactly. I think it was just a spider."

"Ew! Well just make sure they don't crawl on me okay."

It wasn't much further until they came to a staircase. Above they could see the light from the nearby streetlight flickering through the hole in the roof.

"Well that can't be safe," Danny commented noticing all the debris.

"Aw but I'm pretty sure that it's the room upstairs that's the most haunted."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well according to the story my Abuela told me, there is a room with a mural of the rising sun that fills the wall behind the bed and if you ask for Maria, a woman will appear."

"And that's upstairs?"

She nodded, "Sometimes you can see her from outside too, but I think the ivy is covering that window now."

"Great. How about I test the stairs first, make sure they can even hold us."

Danny carefully made his way up and the bottom half seemed to be holding up well. He got to the point under the open roof and the stairwell was still stable. "I think we're good."

And at that exact moment, his leg broke through.

Paulina rushed up as close as she dared, "Oh my gosh are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." He smiled doing his best to ignore the blood that was running down his leg unseen under the stairs. He didn't really think much of it, but he wasn't sure how she would react. "Hey you don't faint at the sight of blood do you?"

"No." She squinted at him in suspicion, "why are you asking me that Danny?"

"I might have scratched my leg a little." He admitted as casually as he could rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

She just stared at him.

"I'll just pull my leg up now." Luckily, he was able to just phase his leg up through passed all the dangerous shards of wood and nails. He had a cut on the bottom of his knee and it was a bit sore, but nothing he couldn't handle after all the damage he'd taken from ghost hunting.

After a bit of convincing that he was, in fact, fine, they carefully made their way up the stairs, seeing as they were already halfway there.

They found the room at the end of the hall, and if Danny wasn't totally turned around, the mural was on the east wall.

In awe of the painting, Danny misjudged the size of the bed and walked right into it, hitting his bad knee.

He spun around to sit on the edge of the bed so he didn't fall on the floor.

"You really are a klutz aren't you?" Paulina shook her head with a smile. "We should probably take care of that."

"Oh yeah." Danny slid his backpack off rummaged around until he found what he was looking for. "There it is." He just hoped he had remembered to refill it this week.

"You brought a first aid kit?"

"Yeah, I bring it everywhere." He paused suddenly feeling self-conscious. "Is that weird?"

"A little." She sat down next to him as he popped open the case.

"Well, I am clumsy. Plus I'm not the luckiest guy in the world, if something can go wrong it does." He pulled up his pant leg to check the damage so he could use the right sized bandage.

"You need some help?"

Danny shook his head, "Nothing a good night's sleep can't fix."

With her still looking right at him his ghost sense went off.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Danny lied as even more escaped his lips.

He looked around the room but couldn't see what was setting it off.

"Wait I know what that is!" She jumped from the bed, "That's a ghost sense!"

"How do you know about that?"

"I had one once after I got bit by that ghost bug, and that's what Danny Phantom called it. But that was months ago. Why do you have it now?"

"Isn't the better question, why is it going off? Because I don't see any ghosts. Do you?"

She stared at him dumbstruck, then her gaze slowly drifted up and behind him.


End file.
